Russian AF chief: US fighters superior to Su-35S

Russian Air Force chief Gen Alexander Zemin Zelin briefed reporters today on the eve of the MAKS air show next week. Zelin covered a wide variety of topics, but we’ll try to summarise the most interesting.

1. The Su-35S avionics and integrated defence system is inferior to “American fighters of the same type”, Zelin said. Depending on how you interpret that phrase, Zelin is either implicitly endorsing Boeing’s F-15 and F/A-18E/F, or perhaps Lockheed Martin’s F-35 and F-22. My money is on the latter. Sadly, due to the “slow pace” of progress by Sukhoi, the Su-35′s appearance at MAKS has been scratched. No word on the status of two PAK-FA prototypes — T-50-1 and T-50-2.

2. The Russian Air Force will transfer its unmanned air vehicles to the army, Zelin said. After covering the USAF-US Army turf wars of the last five years, that’s a very interesting development.

3. Russia will introduce the A-100 airborne early warning (AEW) system in 2016, Zelin said. The Ilyushin Il-476-based system will replace the Beriev A-50s.

4. Russia also will receive 6 new Su-34 fighter-bombers this year, Zelin said.

One Response to Russian AF chief: US fighters superior to Su-35S

I would say it applies to the F-15 and F/A-18E/F- the AESAs that we have fielded on both jets are grossly superior to the Russian’s hardware. And frankly, the F-35 and F-22 are playing in a different league altogether compared to some modernized Flanker variant.